Roger Staubach Thinks Today's NFL Is 'Kind of a Wussy Game' 9/15/2010 8:00 AM ET By Tom Lorenzo http://backporch.fanhouse.com/2010/...ssy-game/?icid=main|main|dl4|sec3_lnk2|170886 NEW YORK -- I suppose you have to respect the words of a Hall of Fame quarterback who was sacked 313 times in 131 career games. Roger Staubach let loose with a few choice words for today's NFL players on Monday when he and a panel of Hall of Famers got together in New York to discuss the preliminary list of nominees to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2011, as well as the Fan's Choice campaign. The campaign provides fans with an online forum to debate and cast their ballot for who they believe should be included. Staubach was asked a question about whether or not quarterbacks in today's game will be evaluated in the same way that quarterbacks during his era were. "The statistics today are overwhelming," he said. "I saw Peyton Manning one time and he had a great comeback drive, but he had two 15-yard roughing-the-passer penalties. I'm thinking, 'I don't ever remember having one of those.' It's kind of a wussy game, really, in a way." He credits some of the bloated statistics to the rules changing over the years. "When we used to run around a little," he said, "the receivers were still getting pounded downfield until the ball was in the air. Today, if you buy a little time, receivers are running free, you just have to find them. So in the passing game [it's] much more [difficult] to separate players, [statistically]." As it turns out, recent Hall of Fame inductee Jerry Rice didn't like the relatively recent rule changes, either, which severely limit defenders' ability to make contact with receivers prior to a pass. He told the panel that he hated the new rules because he would prefer to have the defensive back up close and physical, so he'd know exactly where his defender was at all times. He also didn't like his quarterback Steve Young scrambling when he was "supposed" to be looking to pass downfield. "That used to piss me off," Rice said with a smile. "I'm breaking this defensive back down and I got him exactly where I want him. I'm shaking him, getting ready to break him off, get into my route, and I hear the crowd roaring like crazy, thinking Steve is getting ready to throw me the ball. I'm getting ready for it, when I look up and he's right there on my back." Well, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Rice still caught his fair share of touchdown passes over his career.
If you look at how big and athletic the guys are, who go after the QB these Days, I don't think that comment was fair to todays QBs. That beeing said, there are some pretty bad roughing the passer/uneccasary roughness calls on passrushers these days.
They certainly weren't called the same way that they are today. You can't go within 5 yards of Tom Brady once he's released the ball without drawing a flag.
I'm willing to bet that the NFL will soon adopt a "Running Into the Passer" rule for QBs like they've done with kickers.
They certainly weren't called like today. I've seen Roger get picked up and dumped on his head. That was allowed when he played.
Just Brady and P. Manning because they are to whiny little bitches. Guys like Roethlisberger, Rivers, Brees and Favre all get beaten to death. But Brady and P. Manning are the face of the NFL so they must be preserved...
I find these complaints from former players completely disingenuous. When Roger played they had plastic helmets and facemask bars on the helmet, and I don't recall him complaining about that and saying how that made him a wuss compared to the guys who wore leather helmets. Football players who played 30 years ago die when they're 60 years old, and they're bigger, stronger, and faster now than they've ever been. I have no problem with the league instituting protection for players, whether it's in the form of better equipment or stricter application of rules.
LOL Soon the rule will be that CB's may not touch a WR until they either catch the ball or the ball hits the ground.
He is right and when did you ever see Jim Brown run out of bounds to avoid a hit like today's pussies do?
Franco Harris loved to run to the sidelines to avoid getting hit and he played during the same era as Staubach.
All star QBs draw more flags than Roger Staubach did, sure, but there's no question that Brady and Manning are especially protected. Just look at the "Ty Law rule" (designed specifically to protect Manning) and the "Tom Brady rule" (designed specifically to protect Brady.) And, for what it's worth, I don't have a problem with the league going out of its way to protect star QBs. Players are faster and stronger and defenses are more sophisticated than ever before; it makes sense to protect QBs, who are pretty vulnerable. But let's call it what it is.
As long as Peyton Manning is the commissioner of the NFL, don't expect any changes. In all seriousness, whether you agree with the rules or not, the authority wielded by one single player is embarrassing to the game, and suggests that the NFL is pursuing certain outcomes that call into question the integrity of the rule makers. If the Jets should get homefield and beat Peyton Manning in overtime at Meadowlands and he gets knocked around, expect some obnoxious rule changes. -X-
Roethlisberger and those QBs get beaten to death because they scramble out of the pocket and try to run the ball themselves.... Manning and Brady stay in the pocket and are pure passers. If you run the ball as a QB, you should be annihilated and no penalties should apply.
Well said, things change. Bigger, faster, stronger players. Equipment changes, changes in medical evaluations of players, namely concussions. It is a more proactive league in dealing with possible injuries and treatment of current ones. In terms of pass interference, it is a passing league now with those rules changes. They are trying to create more high flying passing football, so perhaps he has a point there, but everyone plays by the same rules, and a good CB will find a way to make it work. AKA Darrelle Revis.
